The NFL has started onboarding potential replacement officials as the expiration of its collective bargaining agreement with the NFL Referees Association approaches, clubs were informed Wednesday in a memo from Perry Fewell, the league’s senior vice president of officiating.
“Several” replacements have completed background checks with NFL security, according to the memo, and they will soon be given physical examinations. Online and in-person training sessions with league officiating supervisors are scheduled to begin on or near May 1.
The CBA between the sides expires May 31. Fewell wrote that teams will receive a tentative schedule in the coming weeks with details about replacement officials’ availability to work at OTAs and minicamps beginning June 1, if there is no agreement before then.
“Throughout the process we will continue to solicit your feedback on the performance of the potential replacement officials as we finalize the game official roster for training camp and preseason games,” Fewell wrote.
The NFL and NFLRA have been negotiating for nearly two years but reached an impasse this spring. A meeting last week that included multiple owners, including the Dallas Cowboys‘ Jerry Jones, produced what a league source said was “progress.” But it was not enough to delay the NFL’s contingency plans.
According to sources, the NFL has offered the NFLRA a six-year deal that averages annual raises of 6.45%. The average NFL official earned $385,000 in 2025.
The league also has pushed the NFLRA to allow several fundamental changes to officials’ job structure, which the NFLRA has largely resisted. Those measures include increasing the probationary period for new officials from three to five years, shortening the “dead period” during the offseason to allow for more training and reducing the seniority-based approach to covering playoff games.
A source said last month that once the NFL begins the onboarding process, “The opportunity to reach an agreement with our current union becomes a bigger challenge, just from simple economics.”
Owners passed a series of rule changes last month to give league staff in New York City broad authority to help officiate games via video feeds if replacement officials are used in games.
